The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague,has reiterated an offer by UK to help Nigeria find the over 200 schoolgirls abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno. This is contained in a statement circulated to journalists in Abuja by the British High Commission in Nigeria on Tuesday.

It said Hague spoke on Tuesday at a Council of Europe meeting in Vienna, Austria. Boko Haram, through its leader Abubakar Shekau, on Monday claimed responsibility for taking the girls. According to the Nigeria police, 53 of the girls have managed to escape from the insurgents while 223 of them are still being held.

“I called the Nigerian Foreign Minister when this first arose, back on Good Friday, to offer help from Britain. “Our High Commissioner will continue to discuss that with the Nigerians.

“Britain is offering assistance but of course the primary responsibility will rest with the Nigerians, and I hope they will do what is necessary to reunite these girls with their families. “Using girls as the spoils of war and the spoils of terrorism is disgusting and immoral. “It should show everybody across the world that they should not give any support for such a vile organisation,’’ the statement said.

It also quoted Hague as saying that UK had set up the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and a global summit on the issue would hold in London next month. According to the statement, the summit will help countries, including Nigeria, improve the way they tackle the consequences of sexual violence in conflict and bring those responsible to justice.

On Monday, the U.S. said it considered the kidnapping to be an “outrage”.White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama has been briefed on the kidnapping by his national security team.

The U.S. expressed concern that many of the schoolgirls had been smuggled abroad. The U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf shared the U.S. assessment after local officials in northeastern Nigeria said the girls had likely been taken to nearby Chad or Cameroon.

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About beegeagle

BEEG EAGLE -perspectives of an opinionated Nigerian male with a keen interest in Geopolitics, Defence and Strategic Studies

The battle between the Nigerian Army and the militants has been raging on for months, even years. Why the sudden interest by Great Britain and USA. When Nigeria was asking for support several years ago, these same governments were reluctant to even classify Boko Haram a terrorist group.

Anyway, the only way these respective countries can help, is in the area of military equipment. Nigeria doesn’t need USA or UK soldiers walking around on her soil.

Analysis:
Look upon my works ye mighty
After 2 weeks of silence, pressure from the Chibok parents, social media campaigns, celebrity endorsements, protest marches and media interest have elicited high level responses from the Federal Government and finally given Boko Haram the global platform they have so desperately craved.
As at time of writing Boko Haram has released a video claiming to have carried out the abductions, with Shekau once again stating he will ‘sell the girls on the market’. A proper analysis of the video and the kidnapping will follow but it is interesting that none of the girls are featured in the video.
Despite Boko Haram being by far one of the most brutal terror group in Africa particularly considering its size, area of operations and probability of success it has barely elicited a flicker on global media consciousness, be it conventional media, military or even in jihadi friendly circles. Even within Nigeria the average bloody Boko Haram attack arouses infinitely less interest in the rest of the country than a threatened split in P Square.
As discussed last week this abduction constitutes a strategic but pyrrhic victory for Boko Haram but a victory none the less.
Boko Haram’s spectacular attacks have all been a form of ‘Propaganda of the deed’, i.e. an outrageous attention grabbing act that serves as a platform for propagating your message. Well known examples include the September 11th 2001 attacks in the US and the murder of the British Soldier Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London in which the murderers not only committed their crime in public but stood around actively encouraging passersby to take pictures thus ensuring that their crimes and rants would be broadcast globally without the filter of commercial or national media.
The Chibok kidnappings fit this mould and after a slow burning start have finally achieved their aim, Boko Haram is now front page news, leading news broadcasts and trending on social media in different regions, countries, languages and time zones. The actions of the self described ‘small boy Shekau’ have finally got the leader of the most powerful country on earth responding, the President’s wife threatening to go to Sambisa Forest herself (a prospect which must fill her security detail with joy) and senior world politicians burning jet fuel to Abuja and vying for the snappiest twitter comment.
Boko Haram has arrived.
The obvious question as raised in last week’s piece is exactly how will Boko Haram use this new found fame and notoriety? Will the publicity could bring in prized recruits from Western Europe or North America, who can be used to propagandize and fundraise in familiar accents and idioms in their home countries.
Or will the jihadi fundraising networks in the Middle East open their pockets finally now that western powers have finally taken the bait and gotten involved?
Will AQIM finally take them seriously and allow them to take Ansaru’s place as their allies in Nigeria and thus a share of the lucrative Sahelian drug, cigarette and oil smuggling proceeds?
In all these cases the answer is most likely no. There is not a strong Kanuri, Fulani diaspora in the West that can be used to set up the necessary networks from there to Northern Nigeria and book Harams propaganda and narrative is perplexing even to the most hard core of jihadis.
The Middle Eastern financiers already have their hands full with Syria and it is unclear what advantage they would get from sponsoring a group that kills more Muslims than Christians and has very little chance of establishing a Caliphate in Borno much less Nigeria.
AQIM is quite jealous of its links and generally only enters alliances that can ebenfit it. It is also well disciplined and highly professional and one might say scrupulously honest, with followers and leaders displaying remarkable accountability and financial probity, demanding and producing receipts for even the most miniscule of objectives. Coming down south might have a few uses but in the long term will expose them to more problems than solutions and more importantly is of no benefit to Algeria.
What Boko Haram will definitely get out of this is extremely strong leverage to negotiate a favourable deal. US/ UK assistance in Intelligence and surveillance, negotiation, and crisis management will not change the reality that there is no military solution (domestic or international) for this problem, and even if the Federal Government was silly enough to allow another foreign military operation on Nigerian soil the extremely low chances of success would make those Governments highly unlikely to be involved.
Irrespective Boko Haram has the initiative and will milk this situation for all its worth, with more and more videos (some featuring the hostages most likely with their ‘husbands/ owners’), pronouncements and threats, increasing the emotional pressure to the point where the government will either commit to an all out assault of whatever targets it can identify or accept whatever terms it can. The most likely outcome is that Boko Haram will seek (and get) money, prisoner releases and safe passage as the Federal Government does all it can to make the problem go away.
However the overall narrative is still not favourable to Boko Haram. Making war on children and publicly promising to sell them as slaves is a difficult pitch even for the notoriously unsqueamish Central Asian and Middle Eastern terror groups and sponsors.
The Kanuri and Fulani diaspora from which Boko Haram recruits, is mainly spread throughout West Africa. And these communities are already being tapped for funds and recruits. Although slave owning and trading still exists within some communities in the Sahel, active slave raiding such as this is not the norm in this part of West Africa and contrasts sharply with the glorious stories of jihad and riches recruits are currently sold on.
In the short term it would take alot of effort for Boko Haram to lose out in this situation. Long term their credibility in the communities just beyond Nigeria’s borders where they still command respect will be diminish, the international opprobrium whilst good for the crackpots will not bring the flow of cash they desire. Any ransom obtained will have to be shared with the mercenaries they have come to rely on.
But that does not take away from the overwhelming success of Boko Harams patient, ruthless and resilient tactic.
The attention they have desperately craved is theirs thus feeding the eternal dilemma of a counter insurgent who on one hand seeks to generate and control popular outrage against the enemy except when this outrage is exactly what the enemy desires.
Any effort to limit the spread of the popular outrage looks like an embarrassed face saving exercise, however letting the natural upset spread and fester simply gives the insurgency the air of publicity it desperately seeks.
The success of this tactic will spawn numerous similar attacks which for a while will generate sufficient publicity to make Boko Haram a household name.
The main effort thus is to resolve this situation as peaceably as possible but prepare for the next one, which will surely come.
The mighty need not despair, merely prepare for the next round

Nigerian public messed up everything, we should have washed our dirty linens inside our house, we got a world class international embarrassment. Few days to the World Economic Forum holding in Abuja.

We could have searched for the girls with covert Israeli help and avoid this global disgrace. When America helps you, they make the whole world hear that you are helpless and useless until America came to your rescue.

I still dey for yonder, This is live Tv news from North America I watched myself. The station has been giving us updates from the escapee girls in the very Chibok school and Nigerian investigative journalists on ground in Borno with photos, videos, live interviews with names of who is speaking and the organization they work for, Boko films, and many more you don’t ever see on Nigerian Tv.

TV NEWS STORY, AT 2 AM GMT TODAY, MAY 7, 2014.

” Few hours to the attack by Boko on the school girls who were writing exams, the school principal was informed and warned of an approaching Boko vehicle column of fighters, still from far out of Chibok. The principal did not send the girls home to parents for safety.

Other schools in Chibok had been closed down many weeks ago.

Nigerian army had 15 soldiers in Chibok, they were alerted. Boko arrived in large numbers, 15 Nigerian soldiers fought a gallant battle and held Boko to a stalemate for 90 minutes while calling for army reinforcements . No reinforcements came from Nigerian army, no air support from Nigerian air force.

The 15 Nigerian soldiers ran out of ammunition and fled for their valuable lives.

Boko takes over Chibok town, head for the school. Entered, told the girls they are Nigerian soldiers taking them to safety, the girls are embarked on Boko vehicles. In a few minutes, Boko men shouts Allah Akbar, set school on fire, drive away our 200 girls as free wives ! ”

@Peccavi and other generals, I have advocated this idea of 12 Nigerian soldiers heavily armed with armoured vehicles and other weapons suggested by oga Peccavi, I said it is the only way to defeat Boko in open attacks, that we deploy this small units in every town/village in all Boko infested states, and provide NAF Hind helicopter gunship reinforcements with 8 air borne troops and helicopter gun/rocket firepower close air support to arrive at combat zone within 20 minutes of distress call by the squadron of soldiers engaging Boko in firefight in that town.

This strategy will work and reduce Boko to mere suicide bombers, then SSS/DSS/DMI/NIA will have to battle with that intelligence war.

Chibok proved what I said, 12 Nigerian soldiers well armed will hold 50 Bokos into stalemate while awaiting reinforcement and close air support from one Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship stationed in the state at a location nearer to the border than the center. Boko attacks the border towns more.

My 2 kobo, for my dear country, I dey for yonder, but I know where my real home is.

Firstly if a platoon held Boko Haram for 90 minutes in a fire fight, do you think those girls would be so dumbfounded to wait to be kidnapped, or the teacher and students wouldn’t have run off ? Secondly I am sure parents in close proximity would have organised themselves to rescue their daughters while they Boko were held at bay.

I know we have deep rooted issues of capacity and outright incompetence, i do not believe Nigerian soldiers would not come to the assistance of their comrades on getting a distress call.

Finally Boko would not sit in a fire fight for 90 minutes with I am sure casualties and still continue their mission. These Boko guys fight a gorilla war not a conventional one relying on the element of surprise.

Don’t get me wrong Gentleman, but I feel 12-15 soldiers stationed independently isn’t a good idea. Though your military has to take a decision on what will be the smallest number of troops for independent stationing, who will be able to defend themselves. But, it will be based on different factors, one of them being, if reinforcement doesn’t arrive?

There can be several reasons why with every thing in place the support or reinforcement doesn’t arrive.Then what will happen? Are you prepared to hear the news next morning?
How many hours can they sustain? Can they be lucky enough every time to run away when ammunition is over?

This time they weren’t the target, what if BH attacks to run over their post? Can they take the frontal assault?

By being in the village their position and location is well known. It’s entirely different from small team ambushes by SF teams. That is a different story altogether.

To be present in the village in such a small numbers, your boys have to be well dug in.
Which makes it a defensive posture, which is associated with the police and not the army.

It the tail that matters much, I mean the logistics. How heavily can you army a 12-15 person detachment how much rationing and ammunition stock? Are you prepared to see those ammunition with BH if the post is over run? Well you can arm them to only to defend a well demarcated territory. You can’t expect them to be offensive and defensive at the same time.

From your post I fell, what you really meant was a QRT, a small detachment of troops who are highly mobile and can reach a place in quick time ( not stay there) ahead of the column as first respondent.

Use your army for offensive and counter-offensive operation while your armed police for holding operation.

By island placement of 12-15 soldiers, they will be in high stress always, in anticipation of attack and can’t lower their guard. Which will decrease efficiency and may even lead to desertion. You need the army to be alert 24 hours and not the individual soldier in them.

Setup village defense councils to aid the police till the QRT arrives. ( only if local population is in support)

Divide the area into grids, and place a minimum a company of soldiers in those grid location to respond to any call in them. Once military dominates the grid, hand over it to armed police to maintain the grid, start joint intelligence and policing. The grid maintenance should be so tight that, the local police officer should be able to pick up a face of a non native to the village, even in a crowded market.

Once this phase is successful, you will see your boys take the fight to BH, rather than they coming to you.

“The U.S. government is offering to help,
but said Nigeria must take the lead in
finding the students. Officials told CNN the Obama administration is sharing intelligence with Nigerian authorities and could provide other assistance, but there is no plan to send U.S. troops.”

END

U.S. SENATORS CALLS FOR DEPLOYMENT OF AMERICAN SPECIAL FORCES TO FIND ABDUCTED NIGERIAN GIRLS

This embarrassment is for all Nigerians to bear. Now everyone is talking about air and surveillance assets. The country is paying for the criminal neglect of her military and reaching for the least offensive and powerful where we should be looking for the needful.

Those pieces of hardware – drones, surveillance aircraft etc which the US forces might bring, why do we not have them? We were hiding behind “competing demands” to keep the military incapacitated. They plant stooges in our government who work to keep the military prostrate and at a time like this, you can only turn to foreign powers who would turn round to call you useless and nobody feels perturbed or that our sovereignty has been affronted? If they were off the rack for Nigeria in the West, why did we not get them from Israel and China? We leave the attainable and pursue the elusive all the time.

When we are not blaming it on competing demands, the cheering party will only be pacified if it comes from the West. What should be our overriding concern – our national interest or our fancied Giffen goods. There is probably something wrong with our DNA.

Our people need to be rebrained and our leaders try too hard to make a statement of their innocuous intentions. It is surreal because in the end, it leaves the military lying prostrate. When our military held power and had the ability to effectively plug all the gaps in our national defence, they were still waiting for validation and backrubs from the West.

As a pariah, why did Abacha not go ahead equip the military with the sternest possible systems from Russia and China which did not impose sanctions on Nigeria? See how strong Syria and Iran are? Russia and/or China armed them up.

Beegeagle I feel your pain and I hope you feel my shame, I was with a few ex Welsh guards and I couldn’t raise my head to say one word about our military.

We are paying for the criminal ,wilful neglect and politicisation of our armed forces.

I watched a youtube video posted on the 1st May here by Igbi I admire his intention to display the operational efficiency of our armed forces.

However, it showed very worrying operational incapacities and limited capability, no wonder Boko are not in fear of our armed forces.

Firstly, we had a number of either unmanned or poorly manned check and observation posts on the route. I feel sorry for these guys in soft vehicle, no night sights, no APC and no optical sights on their AK’s in almost pitch darkness, If you ever got into a night fire fight you would literally be shooting blind.

Look at those soft skinned vehicles if any boko idiot were release a clip into one of those vehicles imagine the carnage its almost a suicide mission.

Firstly if a platoon held Boko Haram for 90 minutes in a fire fight, do you think those girls would be so dumbfounded to wait to be kidnapped, or the teacher and students wouldn’t have run off ? Secondly I am sure parents in close proximity would have organised themselves to rescue their daughters while they Boko were held at bay.

I know we have deep rooted issues of capacity and outright incompetence, i do not believe Nigerian soldiers would not come to the assistance of their comrades on getting a distress call.

Finally Boko would not sit in a fire fight for 90 minutes with I am sure casualties and still continue their mission. These Boko guys fight a gorilla war not a conventional one relying on the element of surprise.

I suggest you renew your sources your report lacks merit.”

REPLY :

Well chief @kenee2k, your own ‘report’ had no facts or source, but a wrong understanding of the story narrated live on TV by the girls from Chibok and named credible journalists who showed us live interviews , not imaginary thinking from a bedroom.

The story said, Nigerian troops held Boko up for 90 minutes at the entrance to Chibok town, NOT at the school itself, Boko moved on to the school when the NA soldiers fled…I should say retreated out of sight in honour of these gallant men.

The students would not leave the school when fire fight started, it was too late, the principal that did not send them home when Boko had not arrived in Chibok, will not send them home when Boko had arrived and was shooting.

Please read things well before you just attack people here, and try think out of a box when analyzing battle field scenario, it takes more intelligence than an average human mind.

Give us solutions to our Boko problem, and don’t make good suggestions look bad, if you truly love Nigeria.

In fairness to Augustine, i read the same report on a newspaper publication. So his report is accurate.
Whether the girls/eyewitnesses were lying or misunderstood what happened would be a different matter.

Ogas make una leave the argument.
Water don pass gari.
Wind has blown our nyash and its open for the world to see. Simple matter of strong determnined leadership, empathy and proper messaging would have solved these problem, instead people are politicking like the only important thing in this worl is a fucking election.
Anyway lets focus on the focussables.
Oga Augustine: The 12 soldiers I mentioned constitute what in the UK is called a multiple, in effect half a platoon and constitute the smallest offensive combat unit that can maintain the basic of one element manoeuvring, one in support and one in reserve.
12 soldiers in a village or town is an inadequate number however depending on what you want them to do it is not impossible.
If for example the patrol base is situated in a position that is militarily important such as dominating the high gound or the road or a key junction, in other words the enemy cannot attack the village without attacking the patrol base then it is slightly viable. If those troops in turn can rely on fire support in the form of mortars and artillery, close air support and rapid reinforcement then its tenable.
The concept as I would see it would have a patrol base manned at minimum (and this is absolute minimum) 12 men.
In the event of attack the patrol base is to suppress and fix the enemy, if the enemy attempts to bypass the base, the troops are to deploy at least 4-6 men to engage the enemy and call fire down upon them. Each bas would have at least 4 mgs, a mortar, RPGs, plus personal weapons, ammo, fuel, water, food and batteries to sustain them for at least 5 days with a 48 hour emergency supply of all of the above. And of course radios, phones, satphones etc.
Now 12 men no matter how awesome and well armed will not withstand an attack by waves of dismounts, especially if supported by heavy weapons, thus the key is support, support, support
So any patrol base would be need to be supported by artillery and mortars in firebases.
Attack Helicopters should be on call at least at the discretion of the battalion commander as well as support helicopters for casevac
Most importantly the troops should be guaranteed rapid reinforcement by either air or ground in a given amount of time, for example 1 hour or 30 minutes depending on time and distance.
Thus you can see to sustain such an op, is a logistical nightmare. Trying to supply and sustain thousands of far flung troops adds a whole new complexity to the battle and sucks in even more troops to protect the supply convoys and protect the roads and aircraft.

Not surprisingly, because the UK have a faint chance of recapturing some lost imperial glory through this abduction fiasco, the BBC have tactically shifted positions from insisting that BH are militants and that the insurgency is a local problem, to seeing the terroristic slant to their activities and recognising the international dimension to their activities. The days of denying the obvious so that corrupt Nigeria stew in their own juice are alas, now over. It is now time for Britain to play “Benevolent Benedicta” and shore up her diplomatic stocks and so the storyline has changed in sync with that.

All of that to prepare a soft landing and justification for any possible British role in the resolution of the kidnap saga. And they claim not to operate in sync with predetermined gameplans?

Funny that they recognise their national interest and keep in step with that to anyone else’s detriment. Dare you as a Nigerian not be up in arms against your government and you at once get labelled as being pro-establishment. Such played out tricks and double standards.

They have already started to prepare a soft landing for that with a propaganda offensive using the MD of PREMIUM TIMES and Kofi Annan. Listen to their FOCUS ON AFRICA radio programme. So much for hollow noises about impartiality and journalistic balance. BBC WORLD SERVICE are an organ of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. So much for objectivity

French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday pledged “to do everything” to help Nigeria find the schoolgirls abducted by Islamist cell Boko Haram, a French government official said.

“The president reiterated that France will do everything to help Nigeria hunt down the group and find the kidnapped
hostages,” said Stephane Le Foll, French
government spokesperson and agriculture minister.

Hollande’s statement comes after at least eight more girls were kidnapped in
northeast Nigeria’s Borno state on
Tuesday, a day after Boko Haram claimed responsibility for last month’s abduction of more than 234 teenage schoolgirls in the same region. In a video released on Monday, the terrorist group threatened to sell the girls “on the market.” The kidnappings in Nigeria have drawn several pledges of help from the international community.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is currently grappling with security
challenges, one of which is the insurgency of Boko Haram, an extremist sect which seeks to enshrine Islamic Sharia law in the constitution.

Augustine apologies your report is not just possibly true, but more likely completely true.

I found it hard to believe that a platoon of soldiers in a fire fight situation would not be able to call up air support and or additional support units. I felt that Boko would not have the impunity to stand in one place for over an hour, recent events prove me entirely wrong.

The situation has gone to the abyss, we simply don’t have the capacity for whatever reason corruption, incompetence,incapacity, etc. All the major news channels have concluded the Nigerian army lacks capacity, we have become the big laughing stock of the world.